A temporary home and repository for television and film critic Daniel Fienberg, formerly of HitFix.com and Zap2it.com and one half of The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Comic-Con Coverage

I'm down in San Diego now, doing the job of three or four Internet journalists ("Multiplicity" still stinks, but I'm really understanding the desire to clone myself). And I'm tired.

Almost didn't make it down here at all. At 6:45 yesterday morning, driving in the carpool lane on the 405 Freeway, the front, right tire on my car exploded. Thankfully, since it wasn't peak driving time, I navigated across four lanes and made it to the breakdown lane. Torn to shreds, my tire was. Lovely. I called AAA for the third time in just over a week (Good Times!) but the normal freeway repair crew arrived first and pulled off the different tire pieces and changed my tire.

In the near future, I'm suddenly much more excited about "Children of Men" than I was before. The clips from Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" and from Zach Snyder's "300" looked fantastic in short doses, but will they necessarily hold up for their full length? I was suprised at how amused I was by "Surf's Up" and even found vague reasons to be interested in "TMNT."

I'd like to say that I'm most excited for "Spider-Man 3." The darkness in the trailer is fantastic and I like all of the new cast additions. But how will the movie balance three or four villains plus an apparently love triangle? I'm a bit skeptical of that...

Glad to hear your thoughts on "Spiderman 3," I had the same worries. Was their any indication how much these story arcs might be continued in the next installment (and thereby eliminate the need to wrap up all the pieces within 2.5 hours)?

Honestly? I don't think they know necessarily how the film is going to cut together and at what length. They're so very early in the post-production process. If I were a betting man, I'd wager that that Gwen Stacey role will be a lot smaller than a lot of fans are hoping for. I just can't imagine how they're going to fit that in, while still giving time to Sandman, Venom, Evil Harry Osborn and the love story with MJ. But that's totally a guy. They promise, though, that the movie will have a conclusive enough end that if the franchise is done, nobody will be ticked off about the absence of resolution. But who knows?